Thursday, April 19, 2012

2011's The Awakening (And A Formal Shout Out To My New Compadre, Marie)

Hello, fellow horror fans! I am thrilled to introduce myself, my name
is Marie and I shall be reviewing the 2011 British film, The Awakening,
directed by Nick Murphy, whose only previous endeavors were several
television shows.

First of all, I love the poster. For some
unknown reason Rotten Tomatoes is using an extremely boring all-black
poster, when this one is perfectly marvelous! It captures the creepy
atmosphere that is carried throughout the whole film, and I daresay you
might have to watch this one twice to wrap your head around it!

The
setting is England in 1921, just after the end of Word War I. The city
is foggy and dark, cloaked in the anguish the war has left behind. Our
opening scene unfolds onto a séance, where a group of people are seated
around a long table lighted with tall candles, each with an object
placed in front of them—a lock of hair, a photograph, a string of
pearls, etc.

The group begins a chant, asking the spirits to come
forward; a woman’s candle extinguishes before her, and from the other
side of the table, a pale-faced, long-haired figure starts to approach.
The woman becomes hysterical, believing it to be her deceased daughter
making an appearance from the afterlife, when suddenly a young woman
stands up from the table, storms over to the apparition and rips off its
dark tresses, revealing the specter to be nothing but a little boy in a
dress with his face painted white. This young woman—who is our
protagonist, Florence Cathcart, played by the lovely Rebecca Hall (seen
in Vicky Christina Barcelona and several stage performances)—rips open
the curtains and exposes the audience to what this scene really is, a
hoax.

Florence Cathcart is the author of an acclaimed book
entitled, “Seeing Spirits” which denounces the existence of ghosts. She
is known around England for debunking hauntings and exposing hoaxes.
After the séance, Florence declares that she is no longer taking any more
cases (but not before she gets bitch-slapped by one of the séance
attendees). She is overcome with grief of a lover lost in the war; she
carries his initial-engraved cigarette case with her everywhere.

Of
course, it isn’t that easy getting out of the ghost-hunting business—if
that was the case the movie would be a mere ten minutes long. A
handsome man (Dominic West) appears at her doorstep, begging for her
help.

This man goes by the name of Robert Malory, and he teaches
at a school in Cambria where a boy was allegedly murdered some years
ago, before the building had become a school and was still a private
home. However, three weeks prior to Mr. Malory’s visit to Florence, a
student claimed to see the dead child.

So off she goes through the sweeping landscape of the
English countryside! After pulling up to a massive and foreboding gray-bricked
mansion, Florence and Robert are greeted by Maud, (Imelda
Staunton, most widely known as the biggest bitch in Hogwarts, Professor
Umbridge) a woman who works at the school and Florence’s biggest fan.
She informs Florence that she keeps her book right next to the Bible,
and she has no patience for all the talk and fear of ghosts going
around.

Florence receives a formal tour of the school, making sure to meet
all of the other creepy staff members, and then proceeds to set up her
various equipment she uses to catch “ghosts”. One of her devices is a
newspaper covered in flour, which she claims is used to trace
footprints. “Ghosts have footprints?” Robert asks. To which Florence
aptly replies, “No, people pretending to be ghosts do.”

Things
take a turn when Florence begins getting instant results; her traps are
being set off by a child she can only catch a glimpse of as he darts
around corners. She believes the culprit to be a sad, quiet boy named
Tom—the last person to see the recently murdered child alive.

As
her usual methods begin to fail and she continues to experience
inexplicable events that her usual methods can’t resolve, her sanity
starts to wane and no one is as they seem in the boarding school.

The
story unravels at a steady and satisfying pace, and the events that
happen along the way are exciting, original and unpredictable. Halfway
through you might get the idea that you can guess the ending (I had a
few ideas myself) but I guarantee that you cannot.

This movie
reminded me a lot of The Others (don’t think that means I’m giving away
the ending!) and Henry James’s novel the Turn of the Screw, two other
English ghost stories that I thoroughly enjoy. It is a spooky,
atmospheric film with limited special effects and beautiful shadowy
cinematography.

Personally, I loved the character of Florence
Cathcart. She’s not necessarily a likable character, she can be kind of a
jerk, but hey, that is because she has a very dark and troubled past.
People in the film are constantly commenting on how she is an “educated
woman”, which is totally condescending but makes her a bad ass of her
time. She is a tough chick who manages to kick some ass, come to terms
with some terrible things about her past, and have some steamy romance,
too (two guesses as to who she pairs up with).
Rebecca Hall has put on a wonderful performance as Florence, capturing her emotions and personality beautifully.

I’m
a sucker for understated ghost stories, but I really enjoyed this film.
It was released in Canada, Ireland, the U.K, and Italy in 2011, and
will be out in the United States August 10th of this year.
If anyone else has seen it please tell me what you think!

*Marie Robinson is an aspiring folklore expert, fledgling writer, and obvious old soul from St. Louis, MO. She considers Roman Polanski one of her favorite directors, The Sentinel among the scariest of films she's seen, and has read both Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James. All this makes her a class act already, and she's not yet 21.
In her spare time, she does what any true genre fan does - she works at the local movie theater, slinging popcorn and Twizzlers to your sorry asses.

Sadly I missed this at the cinema - it had a very limited release over here. It's on my 'to watch' list. Like Mike said, if its in a similar vein to The Others/Turn of the Screw and that sort of chilly MR James approach to horror, it should be something quite special. And from what I've read elsewhere about it - and what you reiterated in your review - it has more than a few fresh twists and surprises up its sleeve. Really enjoyed your review, Marie. Look forward to reading more of your stuff!

Christine, have you seen the 1980 Charlton Heston horror movie with the same title ?, its one of the most magical and soothing (and ludicrously under-rated) horror movies of all-time, i think the whole movie is on YouTube to save you buying another unneccessary DVD.

Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent...

We Wrote That:

*Christine Hadden is the creator, editor, and head writer of the Rondo-nominated blog Fascination with Fear and has been an obsessed horror fan for longer than many of her readers have been alive. She can overlook movie plot holes in exchange for style and atmosphere, rejects both the 3D and found footage phenomenons, values high gore content when done right, always prefers practical effects over CGI, and has an undying love of vampires. She considers Norman Bates her homeboy and claims Jaws as her favorite film. She has written for Fangoria and Paracinema magazines, MoviePilot, and Eli Roth's horror app The Crypt. She enjoys Kentucky bourbon and red, red wine. But not together.

Contributing Writer

*Marie Robinson is an aspiring folklore expert, published writer, and obvious old soul from St. Louis, MO. She considers Roman Polanski one of her favorite directors, The Sentinel among the scariest of films she's seen, and has read both Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James - making her wise beyond her years. In her spare time, she enjoys wandering through misty cemeteries, seeking knowledge and proof of paranormal activity, and prepping her next frightening short story. Besides Fascination with Fear, she contributes to Destroy the Brain and has written for Eli Roth's horror app: The Crypt.